Single-A Finals: Rome Braves on the Brink

Single-A

SOUTH ATLANTIC LEAGUE

Rome Braves 2, Lakewood BlueClaws 0

Kolby Allard and company shutdown the Lakewood BlueClaws 2-0 in Thursday to take a 2-1 series lead in the South Atlantic Finals. Both teams weren’t able to put any runs on the board until the top of the fourth inning. A lead-off home run by the Braves’ Austin Riley followed by a Carlos Castro RBI-single put the Braves out front for good. Allard went six innings striking out nine, while his bullpen went the rest of the way perserving the shutout. The BlueClaws got good outings from their bullpen but never got going offensively. Lakewood had some chances but ended up going 0-5 with runners in scoring position.

The Great Lakes Loons tied the best-of-five series against the Clinton LumberKings on Thursday night 4-0. Leo Crawford came into the game for the Loons starter Walker Buehler in the fourth inning and baffled the Clinton hitters. Crawford went five innings allowing just one hit with eight strikeouts earning him the victory. The LumberKings couldn’t keep the Loons off the basepath the entire game. Luckily for them though they only scored four runs because it could have been much worse. Pablo Lopez took the early brunt of it giving up two runs in five innings which proved to be enough for Great Lakes. Game three is scheduled for Saturday night at Dow Diamond.

The California League Championship series started on Thursday night as the High Desert Mavericks outlasted the Visalia Rawhide 5-4 in 11 innings. It was a back-and-forth battle most of the night as the two teams exchanged runs. Just when it looked like High Desert was going to take game one leading 4-3 in the ninth inning, Visalia came back to tie the game forcing it into extras thanks to a Fernery Ozuna home run. The game would remain 4-4 until the 11th inning. Back-to-back singles by the Mavericks’ Luke Tendler andJuremi Profar followed by a throwing error by Ramon Hernandez led to the eventual winning run. The second game of the series is scheduled for Friday night.

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In the past John has been a part of such successful sites as MetsMerizedOnline and MetsMinors.net.John was born and raised in upstate New York and has a love of all sports but mainly baseball. He has grown used to heartache with his teams as he roots for the Buffalo Bills and Buffalo Sabres too.John has a loving and understanding wife and is the the proud father of two amazing boys.He also loves heavy metal music.